As house hunters continue to head online to begin their search, more real estate professionals are upping their tech use to meet them there.
REALTORS®’ web presence and use of social media have been increasing in recent years, and they consider it a valuable marketing tool to reach clients and build online communities, according to the 2019 Member Profile, released by the National Association of REALTORS® and reflecting 12,700 member responses.
REALTORS® surveyed said they were progressively more comfortable with technology and were using the latest technologies on a daily basis in their business. REALTORS® cited frequent use of multiple listings software, electronic contact forms, contact management, document preparation, and social media management tools. When working with clients, email, telephone, and text messaging were the most popular modes of communicating.
Client communications: The most preferred method of communicating with clients is text messaging, telephone, and email, with both past and potential clients as well.
Websites: Sixty-seven percent of members reported having their own website. Broker-owners, associate brokers, and sales agents were most likely to have a website; appraisers were the least likely. The majority used their website to list their own properties, while also offering homebuying and homeselling information, links to their firm’s website, and mortgage or financial calculators.
While REALTORS® ranked having a website as important, they mostly brought in no inquiries or business directly from their sites. However, those who spend the most on websites tended to receive the highest number of inquiries or the largest percentage of their overall business from website traffic.
Listings: REALTORS® rely on the internet and third-party aggregator sites to promote their listings. Third-party aggregators and realtor.com® were the most common places to promote listings, according to the survey.
Blogs: Nine percent of members reported having a real estate blog. REALTORS® 49 years or younger are more likely to have a blog (between 10% to 11%), while only 7% of those over 60 had a real estate blog.
Social media: REALTORS® increasingly are using social media for professional use, with Facebook still their clear favorite. However, more than a quarter—or 27%--of REALTORS® surveyed say they do not use social media for their business at all.
For the REALTORS® who do, the breakdown of active usage among social and professional networking websites are:
- Facebook: 73%
- LinkedIn: 58%
- Instagram: 35%
- Twitter: 21%
- Pinterest: 11%
- Snapchat: 5%
- ActiveRain: 3%
Drones: A quarter of REALTORS® surveyed say they do not use drones themselves, but 14% say they plan to use them in the future to capture aerial photos and videos of their listings. Twenty-nine percent say they hire a professional to use drones in their business.
Source: REALTOR® Magazine Daily News
